By Advocate.com Editors

Originally published on Advocate.com July 17 2012 3:02 PM ET

Op-ed Contribution Guidelines

The Advocate welcomes op-ed contributions to our website from experts, those with outstanding personal stories, or political commentators. If you'd like to contribute an op-ed to Advocate.com, please check out what we've already posted. Our op-eds try to accomplish a few things, which should be considered when selecting a topic:

- Personal experience. Our readers like to hear about other LGBT lives and those of our allies.

- Expertise. We like the voice to offer something most others can’t in terms of knowledge. It should be clear why you are writing this piece and not someone else.

- Timeliness. Ideally the topic relates broadly to something happening in LGBT news.

- Opinion. It’s an op-ed, not merely testimony or research, meaning it should come with an opinion about something that all of the above feed into.

If you have an idea for a topic like that, our op-eds run about 800 words. Please include a one or two line biography at the end. See other op-eds for examples. And we can accept the piece whenever you're ready, because we plan ahead.

If your op-ed is accepted by our editors, you'll hear back and should expect to collaborate on a round or two of revisions.

Please use our contact form to send your submission. Select "Submissions" as your category.